How God's Grace Changes Everything
What if the thing standing between you and a completely new life wasn't your effort, your willpower, or your track record, but simply a gift you hadn't yet received? That's exactly what the Apostle Paul wants us to understand in one of the most powerful passages in all of Scripture.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Where We Start
In Ephesians 2:1-7, Paul writes:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
Before he expounds on God's extravagant grace, Paul starts with a description of us, and it is not a flattering picture. We've followed the ways of the world. We've lived to satisfy the sinful desires of our bodies and minds. But this isn't the way we typically think of ourselves, is it? We want to think we're basically good people. We haven't killed anybody or stolen anything. We're mostly honest and decent.
I don't want to deny that there is good in us. But as Christian author Dallas Willard once said, he didn't believe in "total depravity," but he did believe in "sufficient depravity." However much sin is there, it's enough. It's enough to separate us from God.
Jesus Didn't Come to Make Bad People Good
But wait, it gets worse. Because Paul says our biggest problem isn't actually whether or not we're good enough. Our biggest problem is that we're dead.
You can put in a lot of effort to make yourself a better person, but how much good would you have to do to raise yourself from the dead? The answer is that you can never do enough. Once you are dead, you are out of options for helping yourself.
Jesus didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.
If Jesus was only offering one more option for how to be a better person, there would be nothing special about him. But the bad news is that being good enough is not our biggest problem. Our problem is that we're dead.
As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4-5: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved."
We cannot bring ourselves back to life. All we can do is throw ourselves on the mercies of God and trust in the only One who can raise the dead.
So Does Being Good Even Matter?
That might leave you with a question: if our sin has left us dead and we can't do anything to save ourselves, does it even matter if we live as good people?
Paul addresses this directly in Romans 6:1-10, where he writes: "Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it?"
The bad news is that we are dead in our sins. The good news is that when we have died to sin and been raised with Christ, he doesn't bring us back to life so we can live the way we used to live. We are no longer dead in our sin; we are dead to our sin.
When Jesus makes us alive, we can walk in the way that leads to life.
Paul explains this beautifully in Ephesians 2:8-10: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
We don't do good works to try to earn God's love and favor. The grace of God, the sheer enormity of the gift of life we have received, compels us to live a new way of life that was never available to us before. The good works we do are the natural byproduct of God's saving grace in Jesus Christ.
The Grace of Jesus Makes All Things New
The grace of God transforms our lives personally. But would you believe that the grace of God is even bigger than that?
The saving grace of Jesus makes all things new and Paul shows us three ways this happens in the rest of Ephesians 2.
A New Relationship with God
In Ephesians 2:11-13, Paul reminds non-Jewish believers, Gentiles, that they were once "separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
The grace of God is now available to all people. Once, those outside God's chosen people were separated from God, without hope in the world, but now we have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
A New Humanity Living in Peace
In Ephesians 2:14-18, Paul writes that Christ "himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility... His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace."
When Paul talks about "the dividing wall of hostility," he's using it as a metaphor but he also has in mind a literal wall. At the Jerusalem Temple complex, there were a series of walls restricting access as you moved closer to the Most Holy Place at the heart of the Temple. Gentiles were barred from coming any closer to the dwelling place of God. But Paul says that in Christ, all of those dividing walls have been torn down. All the divisions and hostilities that kept people separate from one another and far from God have been destroyed.
A New Temple in Which God Dwells
Finally, in Ephesians 2:19-22, Paul writes: "You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
The new Temple, the new dwelling place of God's presence, is no longer in a building. It's in us. The cornerstone that gives the building its strength and crowning glory is Jesus Christ himself. And each of us, as members of God's household, are put into place so that together, we are God's holy Temple. We are the place where all people can come to dwell in the presence of God.
Putting It Into Practice
Remember where you started. We all stand before God in need of a grace we could never earn. Let that reality keep you humble and grateful.
Stop trying to earn what's already been given. You cannot be good enough to raise yourself from the dead. Receive the free gift of God's mercy and grace through Jesus Christ, and let that gift be the foundation of your new identity.
Live like someone who's been raised to life. The world around us is dead, but we're alive. There should be a noticeable difference. As those who have been made alive in Christ, we are called to demonstrate God's love, grace, justice, and mercy to a world full of people who need to see the goodness of God in us.
Remember what you are. You have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ. You are a witness to the saving grace of Jesus that is available to all people. You are a dwelling place of the most holy and glorious God who desires to dwell with and within all creation.
So go bear witness to the incomparable riches of God's grace, the grace that has raised you from death to life.
Reflection
Take a few quiet moments with these questions.
Paul says we were dead in our sins, not just struggling, not just flawed, but dead. How does that change the way you understand what Jesus actually did for you? Does your daily life reflect someone who has been raised to new life, or someone still living like they're in the grave?
Paul tells us we are God's handiwork, his masterpiece, created to do good works he prepared for us in advance. Do you actually believe that about yourself? What might it look like to live today as though you are God's workmanship, not a project still under construction?
The saving grace of Jesus doesn't just change us personally, it tears down the walls of hostility between people and draws all of us near to God. Is there a "dividing wall" in your own life, a broken relationship, a prejudice, an old wound, that the grace of Christ is calling you to let him tear down?
Application
The grace of God is not meant to be received and stored away. You have been given something extraordinary, new life in Christ, and it comes with a calling. You are not just a recipient of grace. You are a demonstration of it. You are, as Paul says, a dwelling place where the living God resides by His Spirit.
Today, do one concrete thing that reflects the new life you have in Christ. It doesn't have to be dramatic. It might mean:
Reaching out to someone you've been distant from and taking a step toward reconciliation
Serving someone quietly, with no expectation of recognition, simply because you are God's handiwork created to do good works
Sharing with someone, a friend, a coworker, a family member, what it means to you that Jesus makes dead people live
Simply pausing throughout your day to remind yourself: I am not who I used to be. I have been raised with Christ.
The world around us is still living like it's dead. But you're alive. Shouldn't there be a noticeable difference?
Prayer
Gracious God, thank you that you did not wait for me to be good enough. Thank you that when I was dead in my sin, you made me alive together with Christ. I could never have earned that. I could never have deserved it. That is grace, and I receive it with a grateful heart. Help me today to walk in the newness of life you have given me. Remind me that I am your masterpiece, created to do the good works you have already prepared. Let my life be a witness to the incomparable riches of your grace so that the people around me who are still far off might be drawn near by the blood of Christ. In the name of Jesus, who was dead and is alive forevermore, Amen
